For the first time ever, on February 28th, hundreds of runners from Belgrade and Zagreb – Nike Running Club, Belgrade Urban Running Team, Zagreb Runners and 442 Crew gathered to run the streets of Belgrade, led by a young man from Syria, who was representing all the people forced to run from war.

Tanks and military vehicles followed the runners, creating a powerful visual experience, raising awareness about the importance of global change of attitude towards refugees and inviting the world to SUPPORT THE ONES WHO RUN FOR LIFE.

We articulated our strategy for communicating with the media and the public, defining the purposes of those communications – to raise awareness, inform the public, change public opinion, motivate political action, promote the running organisations...

Traditional media - the broadcast, print, radio, as well as social and other media played a significant positive role in this situation, and they also acted as a force that caused this message to instantly spread and reach the millions of people worldwide.

Serbian Commissariat for Refugees and Migration signed agreements for economic empowerment of refugees with largest municipalities. New refugee centers opened, and international companies helped with donations (Nike, Nestle, Caterpillar…). City of Belgrade and the Major joined the campaign, together with Emir Bekric, Athletics champion, and other celebrities. News spread on social media and among running clubs worldwide (New York, Amsterdam, Copenhagen). Instagram video had 140.000 views in one week. UNHCR published the news on their portals and highlighted it as best refugee case.

The message was broadcasted by national and regional media (RTS, Fox, B92, Al Jazeera Balkans, Politka, Danas, Blic, Informer…) and global media (Huffington Post, Euro News, CNN, Watsup Asia, Watsup Europe, Yahoo News, Times of India, CCTV China, Daily Motion, Tube News, Live Leak...), resonating with people from all continents. This was all free PR. In Serbia, it reached 3.000.000 people, more than 40% of total population.